


In the middle of the night (I hear your voice, calling me)

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-13 05:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16886391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Could you do one where Emma & Regina are not yet together but both are already secretly in love w/ each other. Emma is staying over at Regina's house for some reason and then finds out that Regina sleep walks. Not freaky but cute. Of course it leads to more cuteness between them. :) Asked by anon via tumblr





	In the middle of the night (I hear your voice, calling me)

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to use the same basis I did for an older prompt called “Pillow talk”. The roots of that one where that Emma had called the wedding off at the alter with Regina taking her in for the night as Storybrooke mulled on what had happened. The fic followed them both talking and Regina falling asleep next to Emma only to wake up next morning with her hugging her close. I’ve decided to take a look on what happened that precise night.

["Pillow talk"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10771434)

* * *

 

Eyes opening slowly with bits of sleep still clinging to her eyelids, Emma searched almost immediately for the distant warmth that permeated the sheets next to her, her arm finding nothing but an empty wrinkled space where Regina’s body should have been. Frowning and still half-asleep, the blonde put her weight on her left elbow, raising above the bed’s surface and looking at the room in which Regina had walked her in a few hours ago, Hook’s screams and shocked glances still pullulating the back of her mind.

Now, however, she forced herself out of those memories, eyes zeroing on the ajar door that she knew Regina had closed before she had finally agreed on sleeping next to her, keeping the nightmares at bay. A decision that even tear-stricken and tired, had surprised Emma as much as it had pleased her, blush warming the back of her neck and ears as she had felt the dip on the mattress. Still, now the mattress was empty of the former Queen and no sounds echoed from beyond the door.

Swinging her legs and sitting at the bed’s edge, Emma stared for a moment to the empty spot on her finger, the rush she felt on her body momentarily dazing her before she stood completely, trying to find something on the almost completely dark room; shadows and vague lumps her only guide as she walked past the bed, her right palm curling around the door’s handle and pulling it completely open.

The corridor, as she soon discovered, was just as empty and, for a moment, she almost wondered if everything was nothing but a vivid dream. One that she would be awoken soon enough by a cranky Regina, one that would look at her in the same hurting surprise that her parents had directed at them when she had shaken her head and said “no” to a quickly irate man. Shaking her head, she tip-toed outside the room and down the hall until she reached the staircase railing, everything just as quiet as before.

Swallowing, she called for her magic, the feeling still strange despite the many times she had already done it in the past. Sluggish, as if it was just as sleepy as Emma felt, dirty-white colored sparks glimmered around her for a moment. The lack of an actual idea, however, created a fog that quickly fell to her feet. Forgoing the magic, right foot slowly coming forward, the blonde shivered at the contact of the cooler surface of the stair, her hand never letting go the actual railing as she began to descend as slowly as possible.

There, for a flicker, a scent reached her nose, sliding down her throat and covering the back of her mouth in an almost flavor that made Emma’s mind conjure up purple and fiery eyes.

_“Regina.”_

And indeed, she was, standing just slightly at the right of the stairs, facing the dining room with her hair obscuring her face from where Emma was standing, still in the middle of the staircase.

Swallowing, Emma opened her mouth, ready to call Regina again, stronger this time, when she realized that the brunette’s magic, the one that seemed to have called on her as she was sleeping, seemed to be instinctual, flickering lights that had no purpose just like Emma’s own. Which, she thought as she took the final steps, wasn’t something Regina would do.

Moving closer, she finally reached the still brunette, the sparks letting her approach the other woman as they set on her skin, embedding themselves on it before disappearing in a burst of light. Clearing her throat, she tried again, raising her hand and, after a moment of hesitation, touching the older woman’s forearm.

“Regina?”

This time, as silence rolled off them, Emma found the slack face of Regina staring back at her, nothing but calmness pictured on her facial muscles. Almost as if she was asleep.

Sleep-walking. The notion attached to Regina felt so strange Emma almost laughed as she kept staring at Regina’s dazed face. Covering her own mouth and gulping down the gasped laugh, the blonde frowned, remembering all the times she had read that under no circumstances a sleep-walker should be awakened forcefully. And the many other times that had idea had been refuted.

Looking down, at her Regina’s hands fell limp at both sides of her body, Emma eyed the magic that cracked around the woman’s wrists, the flickering rivulets always transforming from smoke to electricity to almost dripping, the power unable to truly stay stable as Regina kept on dreaming.

Perhaps, Emma thought, worry beginning to settle over the pit of her stomach, if she merely called her again…

Moving closer, close than they usually were from each other, Emma parted her lips, her tongue rising higher on the roof of her mouth, tip of the tongue reaching the small ridge just behind her teeth, the “r” sound rolling out of her tongue softly, just barely there, as she called for the woman one more time, calling for her own magic while at it, clumsily sending a wave of what she hoped would be calmness from her arm, her hand, her fingers, into the other woman’s arm.

“Regina.”

With a gasp, Regina’s entire body trembled, purple sparks quickly disappearing and forming a convoluted fog that dissolved just as well as the older woman finally moved, a gasped “Emma?” reaching the blonde’s ears.

“If I had known I would be turning you into a sleep walker I would have thought twice before calling the whole wedding off.”

The joke, albeit flat, made Regina shake her head, the webs of sleep and uneasiness clinging to her frame as she looked around, an “oh” escaping her mouth as she realized where she was.

“I’m…”

“It’s okay.” Emma interrupted, pointing at the chairs on the dining room, not knowing if Regina would feel like going back to bed just yet. “Your magic woke me up. I think.”

Blinking, Regina followed her blandly, a doubt on her usual assuredness that only made itself more obvious as Emma quickly pointed to the nearest chair.

“Are you okay?” The blonde’s question felt stupid the second Emma heard it out loud, the obvious answer hanging between the two of them as Regina sat as primly as ever, one arm crossed over her midsection in yet another move that felt way too out of character from her.

“I’m sorry.” The brunette finally said, and Emma could see there the glimpse of the Regina she knew, already rebuilding from what Emma had gotten a peek from the moment the woman had woken up again. “Magic, it’s been a while since this happened.”

And Emma couldn’t sense a ping on that, no lie detector chiming even if there was something else, something more, hanging on Regina’s tired smile. The kind of one Emma felt a sudden longing from.

“Want to go to sleep?” Her words came out rougher than intended but Regina didn’t seem to register it as she stood, nodding already.

Following suit, Emma stood and aimed for the stairs, only stopping when Regina called for her, a carefully look on those brown eyes that due to the hazy color spectrum of whites, blacks and greys lacked their usual shade.

“Thank you.” The brunette smiled, crookedly, and Emma blinked at it, at the softness that radiated from the older woman. Maybe, she thought, she hadn’t lost everything. Not like she had originally thought. Opening her mouth again, Regina halted for a millisecond, her voice lower now. “For waking me up.”

“Of course.” The reply felt strange and obvious on Emma’s mouth, but she still said it with a smile, one she wasn’t sure Regina saw as she hummed and walked past her, her hand grazing hers, magic still powerful on her veins to call forwards Emma’s in a toe-curling feeling the blonde felt wholly unprepared for. Blindly, she reached for the older woman’s retreating hand but didn’t quite managed to touch her, her own muscles stilling a second too early.

“Let’s go to bed.” She muttered under her breath, walking towards the stairs, hand back on the railing until they were both in front of the bedroom the brunette had offered Emma, the realization that Regina didn’t truly had a reason to keep on sleeping next to Emma suddenly seeming to reach them both.

And maybe it was because she still could feel magic curling inside of her, touching, reaching for her, but Emma felt selfish, selfish enough to ask, to wonder.

“Please.” The word escaped Emma’s mouth too quickly and as Regina stared at her Emma wondered for a second time if she wasn’t dreaming this, if this wasn’t really true. An even as Regina sighed and nodded, a careful look on her eyes, a hidden, private conversation neither of them were ready to talk about glowing on the way her eyes avoided Emma’s own, she still felt a second away from opening her eyes, finding herself back on the bed, nothing changed from the last time she had go to sleep.

Still, she watched as Regina entered into the room, beckoning her to her with one glance as she sat on the very same side of the bed that had been empty when Emma had opened her own eyes mere minutes before.

And so, Emma complied, slipping into the already cool sheets and staring at the ceiling in a futile attempt to fall asleep.

Which she eventually must have done as she could only vaguely remember a mutter, another “thank you”, pressed into her temple in the form of a maybe too long caress she found herself turning to, seeking its warmth. When morning finally rolled by, she found Regina against her body, arms around her waist as she herself spooned the older woman closer, content, far too content to move away.


End file.
